MILWAUKEE—The Blue Devils missed having one of their senior leaders, but that did not stop them from cruising to their second road win of the season.
Center Elizabeth Williams filled the void left by the absence of senior forward Haley Peters, who was unavailable due to a knee injury she sustained Thursday night against Vanderbilt. Williams’ 23 points lifted No. 2 Duke to a 78-61 win against Marquette Sunday afternoon at the Al McGuire Center.
“[Marquette] is a very good team,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said “But Elizabeth is a very good player and she is hard to guard. She was fantastic in demanding the ball, especially in the second half.”
Williams and freshman Oderah Chidom, who was a perfect 4-of-4 from the field with nine points and five rebounds, helped the Blue Devils (5-0) outscore the Golden Eagles (4-1) 46-20 in the paint.
Playing without Peters—who is the team's leading rebounder—Duke was outrebounded 45-35 by Marquette and allowed the Golden Eagles to score 17 second-chance points.
“Haley is a tremendous loss for us,” McCallie said. “But I do think people stepped up. Oderah gave us really good minutes. She was aggressive, she was active. It was a tough team to play. It was not like she was walking into those statistics.”
Duke guard Chelsea Gray fed the post all game, registering 13 assists and finishing one rebound shy of a triple-double with 12 points and nine boards.
“We have this tendency to play from the outside in,” McCallie said. “That is bad because we have some tremendous post-players. I thought we did a great job, particularly our guards, of going through Elizabeth and letting things happen there.”
The Blue Devils quickly built a 16-9 lead in the first half, but the Golden Eagles stormed back, riding a 10-3 run that tied the game 19-19.
Even though Gray got into foul trouble early on, stout defense by Duke held the Golden Eagles offense to just 10-for-35 shooting in the first 20 minutes and allowed the Blue Devils to walk into the locker room with a nine-point lead.
Guard Alexis Jones set the tone after the break, draining a 3-pointer 11 seconds into the second half and expanding her team's advantage to double digits.
But Marquette would not go away. Senior guard Katie Young knocked down four 3-point shots on her way to a 21-point performance. Forward Katherine Pluoffe also added 17 points and eight rebounds.
Duke capitalized off of Marquette mistakes, scoring 26 points as a result of 20 Golden Eagle turnovers. Jones played a crucial role defending the backcourt and was credited with four steals.
“We were excited to play against [Marquette] to see what we could work on in our different defenses,” McCallie said. “Alexis was on it defensively. Some great plays in the second half to pick us up.”
The offense continued to get the ball to Williams, who scored 13 of her 23 points in the second half. At one point, with the Blue Devils leading 46-38, Williams scored on a jumper to open a 7-0 run that gave Duke a 53-38 lead and some breathing room.
“The guards did a really good job of getting the ball inside,” Williams said. “We talked a lot about transition. I can get out and run and the guards threw long outlet passes.”
Marquette tried to bounce back, cutting the deficit to 13 points with 4:39 to play, but Duke controlled the paint down the stretch to come away with the victory.
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